Transportation

A sizeable crowd gathered at the Rockridge Library meeting room on September 20th to hear speakers address numerous Rockridge transportation issues. While there was no official representative of Oakland's Department of Transportation ("OakDOT") present, a variety of speakers, including RCPC's transportation committee chair, Alden Conner, provided information on topics ranging from the reconfiguration of the Rockridge BART's Ford Gobike bikeshare station to mini-roundabouts on Shafter Ave.

Last Thursday, June 14th, RCPC and the Greater Rockridge Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council co-hosted their annual Town Hall meeting. The special guest speaker is the new Oakland Police Department district commander for the area of Oakland that includes Rockridge, Captain Chris Bolton. In addition, RCPC's segment included a discussion of bicycle riding on College Avenue sidewalks and what (if anything) to do about it, as well as other Rockridge transportation issues.

Videos from that Town Hall have now been posted for viewing on YouTube.

On April 19th, 2018, RCPC held its annual meeting and April Town Hall at the Rockridge Branch Library. A total of twenty-nine Rockridge residents signed in for the election, above the minimum quorum requirement of twenty-five. An additional eight Rockridge residents voted on Saturday at a polling place in front of the library. At the meeting, the five candidates for the Board of Directors: Ashley Cruz, M.C.

There wasn’t quite the full house that had greeted the January Town Hall, but the March Town Hall audience, coming to hear a follow-up report on the Rockridge BART Station Ford GoBike bikeshare station, as well as new enforcement plans for Rockridge’s many Residential Permit Parking areas, was still plentiful, and they got lots of information from the meeting.

Following up on a commitment made at the January RCPC Town Hall meeting, representatives of BART, the City, and Motivate (the bikeshare provider) are beginning the process of re-evaluating possible sites for a bikeshare station for the Ford GoBike bikeshare program. The program is cosponsored by the City, Motivate, and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and bikeshare stations are being located in many cities throughout the Bay Area. The Rockridge BART station location is a key location within Rockridge, with space for up to 35 bikes.

An overflow crowd filled the Rockridge Library's meeting room on the evening of January 24th to hear about a variety of topics, mostly related to transportation. The topic included the removal and replacement of trees around the Rockridge BART station that had been identified as hazards, placing min-roundabouts along Shafter Avenue in conjunction with its repaving this Spring, the location of Ford Go-bike bikeshare stations around Rockridge, including in front of the Firestorm tile mural at the Rockridge BART station, and an update on a condominium project put forward by Signature

When a street gets repaved, it's a magical time. The stripes are bright, the crosswalks are crisp, and the street is so, so smooth.

At the Oakland Depar tment of Transportation, or OakDOT, we're excited about delivering more repaved streets with funding from the recently-passed Measure KK, which will provide $350 million for infrastructure repairs over the next ten years.

The cty of Oakland is proposing improvements to bicycle and walking access to the Rockridge BART station. The Transportation Services Division will host a meeting Wednesday, September 30, 7:30-9 p.m. at the Rockridge Library to present preliminary project plans and to hear comments from Rockridge residents and business owners.

Following the lead of many other states, California has enacted a new law, which took effect last September, requiring that car drivers maintain a minimum three-foot buffer when passing a bicyclist, an important revision to a previous state law which required drivers to pass bicyclists at a "safe distance."

The new law requires motorists to slow down and wait to pass until it is safe to do so, including on narrow roads. Three feet is roughly equivalent to a fully open passenger-side door, or the length of an acoustic guitar.

In the weeks since the May 29 community meeting hosted by the city of Oakland to present planned improvements to Broadway between Broadway Terrace and Ocean View Drive (see June 2014 issue of The Rockridge News for a report of the meeting), staff and their consultants have transcribed and to over 70 comments and questions conveyed at and since the meeting.

The latest plans for pedestrian crossing, bikeway, lane configuration and related improvements on Broadway between College Avenue and Ocean View Drive will be presented by city staff Thursday, May 29, beginning at 7 p.m. at the Rockridge Branch Library community meeting room on the second floor.

Following review of a traffic study, plans are moving forward on the project, which is intended to improve safety in the corridor for all roadway users.

The world of bicycle infrastructure is changing rapidly. People around the United States are realizing that cycling can be a major form of urban transportation-if cities provide bikeways that are safe, convenient, and comfortable.

Recently, more of Rockridge's bikeway network came to fruition with the completion of bike lanes on Alcatraz; sharrow markings on the Shafter-Forest-Colby and Cavour bike routes; and improved wayfaring signage.

City staff presented proposed designs for the Upper Broadway "road diet" and related intersection improvements at a public meeting held in mid-November at College Preparatory School.
This project includes components that will be funded through the Caldecott Settlement Agreement - including a pedestrian-activated traffic signal at Lawton and corner bulb-outs to reduce the speed of vehicles turning from Broadway onto Ocean View and Lawton - as well as a number of improvements to be funded through roadway resurfacing and other funds. These components include:

AC Transit received a $10 million grant to design and implement infrastructure modifications along the entire Line 51 route to increase reliability and on-time bus performance, and improve safety for pedestrians and AC Transit riders.

Join cyclists from around the Bay Area and ride your bike to work. The San Francisco Bay Area's 20th annual Bike to Work Day (BTWD) is Thursday, May 9, an event to encourage cycling as a non-polluting and healthy commute option.

Shortly after Susan Shawl's informal pothole survey was published in the March issue of The Rockridge News, many of the pavement failures she documented were filled and paved, including the one on Claremont Avenue that measured a whopping 3 feet by 4 feet by 3 inches deep.